Cavern Lighting

Carlsbad Cavern's modern lighting system includes more than 1000 bulbs and tubes, and 19 miles of concealed wires. The lights are designed to reveal the cavern's natural colors.
The natural condition of the cavern is total darkness. Without artificial lights you could not see your hand in front of your face.
In the rare event of a power failure, the lights would be powered by a 315 kilowatt diesel generator on the surface. There are also many battery-powered emergency lights in the cave.

It takes a wide array of incandescent, fluorescent, and mercury vapor lamps to illuminate Carlsbad Cavern. Colored lights are not used.

Submitted by @warrendgray